News portalspace

How is your NHS hospital doing on waiting times?

Daniel Wainwright Data journalist, BBC Verify Getty Images Doctors and patient groups warn that the NHS in England is facing an uphill struggle on the government’s number one NHS priority – improving hospital waiting times. They are concerned about the lack of progress towards hitting the 18-week waiting time target, one of Labour’s key election […]

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Covid inquiry begins examination of impact on social care sector

James Melley Senior Social Affairs Producer BBC In the early days of the pandemic, care home staff donned full personal protective equipment The Covid inquiry will start examining the impact of the pandemic on care services for elderly and disabled people on Monday. Bereaved families say they have been waiting for this moment for years, […]

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New Brazil development law risks Amazon deforestation

A new law in Brazil could cause “significant environmental harm and human rights violations”, and represents a “rollback for decades” of protections in Brazil, including for the Amazon, a UN expert has told BBC News. Plans to speed up approvals for development projects were criticised by Astrid Puentes Riaño, a UN special rapporteur, as the […]

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UK gets first female Astronomer Royal in 350 years

Gwyndaf Hughes Science Videographer Amanda Clark/Cabinet Office Prof Michele Docherty showed courage and talent to become Astronomer Royal Astronomer Prof Michele Dougherty did not study science in secondary school – but was instead inspired to learn more about space after using her father’s telescope. Now she is the first woman to be appointed the UK’s […]

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Covid inquiry hears of ‘generational slaughter’ in care homes

Alison Holt and James Melley Getty Images Nicky Hastie, holding an image of her mother, attended the inquiry in person on Monday A civil servant’s assertion that there was a “generational slaughter within care homes” in the early days of the pandemic is a phrase that “chimes with the experience of thousands of our families”, […]

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The doctor strike is ending

BBC Dr Shivam Sharma, right, feels let down by the health secretary The five-day doctor strike in England may be ending, but it is clear this dispute – 12 walkouts and counting – is far from over. “We’ve been let down by Wes Streeting,” says Dr Shivam Sharma, who joined one of the last picket […]

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Could he really revolutionise US healthcare?

BBC Listen to Jim read this article There’s a saying that Robert F Kennedy Jr is very fond of. He used it on the day he was confirmed as US health secretary. “A healthy person has a thousand dreams, a sick person only has one,” he said as he stood in the Oval Office. “60% […]

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Covid care home policy was ‘least worst decision’

Former health secretary Matt Hancock has denied claims the government’s attempt to throw a protective ring around care homes in 2020, early in the Covid pandemic, was empty rhetoric. In an irritable exchange he urged the Covid Inquiry to focus on the substance of what the government was doing at the time. Mr Hancock said […]

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